Good design is Good Business

Thomas John Watson Jr. set out to put his stamp on IBM after taking over Watson Sr. as IBM’s chief executive in 1952.

He delivered on his intent and went on to hire Eliot Noyes in 1956, revered architect and former curator of industrial design at New York’s MoMA from 1939 to 1946.

He fostered successful collaborations with some of the most influential innovators of the 2oth century such as: Designers, Charles and Ray Eames, Finnish American architect & industrial designer – Eero Saarinen, well-known American art director & graphic designer – Paul Rand, and Japanese American artist & landscape architect – Isamu Noguchi. In 1973, at a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Watson Jr. proclaimed,